Father
by CocoGirl
Summary: Antonio is a teacher substituting a kindergarten class, and comes across one of the students, Romano. Something is very off about the boy, but he cannot quite understand. Based off a Japanese Drama from 2010 called Mother. Triggers: Child Abuse (Physical/Neglect), Kidnapping


**Chapter 1**

"A boy! A small boy, aged 5… Brunet, hazel eyes, just above three feet tall…! Find him!"

Ambulances and police cars were flashing crimson lights in the darkened scenery at the port. Ships turned on all the lights they equipped in an attempt to search for the child in question, the usually quiet surroundings bombarded with yells and desperate calls for the child that went missing. News spread out that evening of the missing child, alerting the officials and surrounding citizens that gathered to either be nosy or generously attempt to help with the search.

The boy they were searching for was a kindergartener, Romano Vargas. The child was reported missing that evening with a single call from the grandfather, the legal guardian of the boy, and after a small search around the area a tip was put in from one of the local fishers of spotting a boy that matched the description. Unfortunately, the tipper was an older man who also stated he thinks the boy had fallen into the sea and immediately reported figuring it was an accidental drop when he couldn't spot the child in the water after taking his eyes off of him for a second. He figured a parent was nearby watching him, but that quickly cleared up wasn't the case. When he turned back, he noticed the child was gone, and only found a floating glove in the water that he assumed the child was wearing.

In the small resting shelter in the port sat an older man in his late 50s with a toddler at his hip. One of the police men walked in, holding a child-sized navy colored scarf, and locked his gaze onto this older man. He took a deep breath and approached the said man and held the scarf under the lowered face of this gentleman before asking calmly.

"Does this look familiar?"

The older man slowly glanced to the scarf held up to him and after a silent shaking breath, turned his head away to hold tighter onto the toddler on his lap. The toddler was fast asleep, snuggled up warm for the snowy winter weather that surrounded the scene. At the reaction, the policeman scowled and raised his voice, now shaking as well. "Tell me, does this look familiar to you!?"

"…" No response, yet again. The policeman couldn't take it, he needed answers immediately. This was an emergency situation, and this old man was not answering the questions he desperately needed answers for. Inhaling a deep breath, he tried once more, loud enough that his voice woke the sleeping child in the man's grasp.

"Tell me!"

The startled child began to cry, and the man tightened his grip visibly on the alarmed toddler. He waited until the child was quiet once more before finally the man opened his mouth once more and muttered out shakily.

"…That is Romano's scarf."

-One week ago-

"Me? A substitute for the Rabbit class?"

"Are you saying you can't do it?"

Two men sat at the table in a school's staff room, one a brunet and another a blond. The brunet had curly hair and a well built muscular body, his skin toned with the years he spent back at his homeland in the sun in his earlier years.

"No no, that's not what I meant…! But… Isn't there someone else who is more fitted to the role? I mean, it's only my first year being a substitute… I don't know if I can handle a whole ten months with a full class of kindergarten children, Mr. Kirkland."

The blond, addressed as Mr. Kirkland, frowned at the answer he received from the brunet. He took a sip of the tea he had made to drink during the discussion and gave a silent pause before wording his phrase carefully.

"Mr. Carriedo, please, just call me Arthur. I get called Mr. Kirkland enough by the young ones in this school, I rather have my name regularly be called instead when talking to fellow adults…" He started, before continuing on with the main topic in discussion, "and no, there are not other replacements we can get a hold of. You've subbed for the Rabbit Class a few times already; the students know you do they not?"

"They really don't." The brunet man addressed as Mr. Carriedo shook his head, "and if that's the case, call me Antonio back, Arthur. Regardless, no, the students don't really know me, because the class I subbed for was the Giraffe class, not the Rabbit."

"Oh…?" Arthur blinked before he glanced back at his papers and widened his eyes. "Ah… My mistake. But the offer still stands… It's only for this year; next year, Elizaveta should be back from her maternity leave and we should be able to put you back to a temporary sub position once more."

Antonio sighed at the response before he sat back, leaning on the back of his seat in thought. "…If you can provide me with the curriculum, I can see what I can do…"

"Perfect. For starts, today, please have the children write or draw a letter." Arthur said, glancing out the window that was beside the chair he sat in. "Addressed to the Duck in heaven."

"…Excuse me?"

Taking another sip of the tea in hand, Arthur turned back to Antonio when he heard the question and sighed, brows furrowed. "Oh, you haven't heard?" He asked, surprise in his voice. "The duck the school had as a school pet died yesterday. Many of the children are deeply saddened, so it would be a great way to ease their pain."

Antonio frowned at the idea but gave a nod, not being able to go against who was initially his boss at this point. Standing up, he began to make his way to the door so he could head to the classroom but was stopped when Arthur called his name out once more. Turning to look over his shoulder to the blond still sitting on his chair with the teacup in hand, he raised a brow. "What?"

"I just wanted to say good luck."

Antonio cracked out a bright smile and waved the other off as he walked out the door and headed to the room.

Rabbit class… This school was slightly special, as they named their classes based on different animals when it came to the kindergarten classrooms. The kindergarten classrooms were also held in a different building than the other elementary school grades, which were all gathered in a different building and didn't follow such rule in naming their classrooms. Perhaps it was a way to ease the smaller children's stress in their first year of schooling; applying familiar and cute animals to their class names was probably just a simple solution to ease the frightened or nervous children. Rabbit, Giraffe, and Panda class… Antonio subbed for the Giraffe class, the teacher was a lady by the name of Iryna. She left beautiful detailed notes of each child in the class and the classroom was one of overall calmness that Antonio found very easy to work with. The other class, the Panda class, he never subbed for, but he had seen the teacher out and about with the small students. The children called him Mr. Wang, and he seemed to be an Asian man. When Antonio first saw him, he thought the man was actually a woman and found it quite awkward when he found out otherwise.

Arriving to the classroom door, he opened it up to find the students out and about in the classroom playing with toys and enjoying their time. Antonio quickly scanned around and gave a quick count of the 16 students in class before he called out for the students to sit at their seats, to which they all did without a fight, one of the students even putting away the toys that he had been playing with. Antonio recognized it with a quick praise before he took the attendance and told the children of their project of the day.

Antonio was surprised as minutes passed with the children each working on their own original letters to the deceased duck quietly, focused on the task on hand. Elizaveta must've really trained these kids to be able to focus when it was time to do work and be able to goof off as normal children when it wasn't such time. It was very easy for Antonio to work with, the children all quietly doing their own work meant Antonio just strolled around the classroom peeking in and occasionally praising an attempt to write words or draw a scribble art of whatever. No need to chase children down as they jump around during so, it was a nice change from the Giraffe class. Though calmness was indeed one trait that Antonio could remember from the class, they were still children. Occasional tantrums and moving about were in the expected, he didn't think much of it. With that lingering in his mind, he was moving to another child, but stopped beside him and blinked.

"…?" On the table there was a tape that labeled each child's name, Antonio had been using that to attempt to remember all the children as he talked with them on his way around the classroom. This child's desk was no different, as it was labeled clearly, Romano Vargas, but that wasn't what caught Antonio's eye. There was nothing written on the paper, and the boy was just sitting on his chair silently playing with his fingers. Curious, Antonio knelt down next to the table and glanced into the boy's face, watching their gazes meet. "Are you feeling alright, Romano?"

"…" The child didn't respond at first, but just blinked back and sighed, moving forward to put his chin on the desk in front of him. Antonio frowned at the response he received and maneuvered himself around the table so that he was kneeling in front of the boy, a brow raised in question.

"There isn't much time left to write the letter… You should hurry up." He tried instead, watching as Romano's hazel orbs focused back on him once more. There was a moment of silence before Romano pushed himself back up and tilted his head to the teacher knelt in front of his desk.

"Do you think heaven actually exists?"

Antonio was taken aback by how dry the question was asked. He frowned, hesitating. There was no real answer to the question; religions could always change the answer and different parents probably taught different ideas when it came to the world after death. Antonio studied the cold eyes he was being stared down with.

"…You don't think it does?" He decided to ask the child back, leaning on the desk in front of him. Romano answered with a silent shrug, and Antonio gave a gentle smile in response to that. "That's fine. But for now, our project is to write a letter to the Duck. Maybe draw a picture of a memory you had with it?"

"Why would I do that when the stupid duck won't even see it, or even understand it, anyway?" Romano asked back, and Antonio nearly groaned when that elicited shocked gasps from the children around in the class. Some whined and called Romano mean, while others shook their heads and commented on how they couldn't believe how cold he was being. Romano didn't seem to care, however, simply going back to playing with his fingers. At this, Antonio frowned and took the paper off the child's desk.

"…If you don't want to write a letter, that's fine." Antonio muttered, placing the blank sheet of paper on the teacher's desk, hoping to get a reaction that would show perhaps some childish arguments from Romano. When the child just stared at him in silence for a short moment however and gave a small grin, Antonio was only confused further.

The bell rang soon after, and Antonio collected the papers from the children in the class. Many parents were already waiting out the door for their child, and while most of them were picked up, there were a few children who told Antonio they walked home alone. Antonio was quick to check the list before confirming that those children indeed lived close enough and made their ways home on their own and released the said children on their ways. The school was one that promoted independence whenever possible, this was perhaps just another way it was done. Police officers and neighboring families around the area banded together to keep an eye out for the children walking home every day, that there was no real worry for them getting taken or hurt. Checking down the list of children trying to remember each of their arrangements, he realized Romano was on the list as one of the children who walked home on their own as well and stopped his task of memorizing the children, unable to help but to remember the earlier event.

"…Ah, I need to give these to Arthur." He muttered before placing the list down and picking up the pile of letters and drawings addressed to the duck, carrying them back to the staff room and placing them on Arthur's desk. It was then that the blond walked in with his own stack of papers and blinked at Antonio.

"How was your first day?"

He decided to ask, moving over and sitting on the chair in front of his table. Antonio decided to borrow the seat next to it, pulling the wheeled chair over to discuss his day.

"It was pretty good! I was surprised at how behaved the children were, it wasn't like I was teaching kindergarten. Elizaveta must've really smashed the rules deep into their minds." Antonio laughed, "Ah, those papers are for the duck you mentioned. Most of them did a pretty good job trying to write or draw a message."

"I see." Arthur muttered, going through the pile Antonio brought in thought. "Most, huh?"

"Well… There was this one boy, Romano Vargas? He didn't seem to want to participate, so I didn't force him." Antonio admitted. He frowned, suddenly feeling he failed to do the project with all the children. What a horrible sub he was, unable to get all the children engaged into the activity… Feeling down, Antonio whimpered and rested his elbow on Arthur's desk and his chin in hand, sighing deeply. "He kept asking strange questions, too. A bit of an outcast…?"

"I've heard things about the kid… Elizaveta was worrying about him before she left." Arthur admitted, and stood up to reach over to another one of the desks after he saw the blank sheet of paper at the very bottom of the pile. He pulled a file from another table and handed it to Antonio. "Use it, you might find some useful information."

Antonio took the filing folder given to him and read the labeled scribble on the front, before widening his eyes and scooting away slightly from Arthur to open it and look in. Iryna kept a file of her students in her classroom, he was wondering where Elizaveta kept hers! It seemed Arthur knew it was in this office. Not questioning why, Antonio flipped through the pages of the children in the class until he came to the page for Romano. Most of the information written were basics, his name, age, gender, etc… Antonio did notice he was slightly shorter than average, but at this age many children were of different sizes anyway. It didn't take him long at all to find the notes written on the page, several handwritten.

'Very stubborn', it started out, being the first thing written about the boy on the notes. Antonio didn't find it strange; children could be stubborn at this age… He continued on, green eyes skimming carefully through the written notes. 'Lives with his grandfather and baby brother. Often quiet. Says strange things for his age. Lost his parents a year ago. Reacts better when talked to from a lower height. Doesn't have a friend in the class from what I can see.'

Antonio loved when teachers left such notes about their students; they didn't need to show their parents or anything, but it was always helpful in situations as such, especially for the younger children in the school. Antonio thought as he flipped through the pages for the other children, giving them each a quick glance over, though in his mind remained the information that was written on Romano's page. It was a special case, indeed.


End file.
